(AP) — A new National Willa Cather Center is being planned for the author’s Nebraska hometown of Red Cloud.
The Willa Cather Foundation said Tuesday the center will include a public museum, archive and arts and cultural center.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is honorary national chairman for the public fundraising effort. The foundation must raise $144,000 by June 30 to meet a $400,000 challenge grant offered by the Peter Kiewit Foundation of Omaha.
Cather is celebrated as the author of “O Pioneers” and other books influenced by her life in Nebraska and Virginia and her travels. She’d been born in 1873 in Frederick County, Va., and lived for nine years in Back Creek Valley before moving with her family to Nebraska. The family resettled to Red Cloud in 1885.
(AP) — A new report suggests hospital infections are not as common as previously thought — but still 1 in 25 patients are infected.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the estimates Wednesday. It’s considered the best data yet on infections patients pick up in the hospital.
The results are based on a 2011 survey of 183 hospitals in 10 states.
Four percent of patients had one or more infections. That’s about 648,000 patients annually.
The previous estimate was much higher, but the CDC said it’s hard to compare the new and old figures because they were calculated differently.
Health officials have been pushing hospitals to cut infections by improving care and cleanliness.
(AP) — When Sarpy County emergency dispatchers picked up a recent call, all they heard were the sounds of breathing and scratching.
Dispatchers were worried — until they learned the noises were coming from a dog that dialed 911.
Sarpy County 911 Assistant Director Marilyn Gable said it’s the first time a dog has called the emergency center.
The dog’s owner, Melissa Acosta, says she thought her 2-pound Japanese Chin, Sophie, was trying to curl up next to her on the couch, then realized Sophie was scratching at Acosta’s smartphone with her paw.
Then Acosta heard a voice from the phone asking for an “address of the emergency.”
Acosta says the whole thing is “a little embarrassing.” Sophie, of course, had no comment.
KEARNEY, Neb. – When the 2014 NCAA men’s hockey tournament kicks off on Friday afternoon across the family of ESPN networks, 10 former Storm players will represent eight different teams attempting to capture this year’s national championship.
The No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, Minnesota, led by Big Ten player and goaltender of the year Adam Wilcox, will be in the West Regional.
Wilcox has been outstanding all year for the Golden Gophers, winning 23 games and posting a 1.91 goals against average and a .933 save percentage. The sophomore will be right at home when the Gophers open up against Robert Morris in his hometown of St. Paul, Minn.
The goaltender played 34 games for the Storm in 2011-12 and led Tri-City to the 2012 USHL Clark Cup Playoffs.
Three Storm alums represent the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional, Ferris State. Jason Binkley, Dominic Panetta and Simon Denis help comprise a Bulldogs roster that will look to get back to the Frozen Four for the second time in three seasons.
Binkley has been one of the Bulldogs’ top defenseman in his junior year, scoring three goals and 21 assists in 39 games. Panetta, teammates with Binkley in Tri-City during the 2010-11 season, has two goals and five assists in 22 games.
Denis, another member of the 2010-11 Storm team, played six games before an injury sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
Three members of the Storm’s 2012-13 roster from last season have also earned a place in the tournament. They include Michael Vecchione, Trevor Mingoia and Trevor Moore.
Vecchione, who led the Storm with 26 goals in 2012-13, has had a breakout season as a freshman at Union College. The Saugus, Mass. native scored 31 points in 34 games in his first season on campus that included 12 goals and 19 assists. His contributions helped Union to an ECAC Championship and a No. 1 seed in the East Regional.
Mingoia made a big impact with Providence College during the season’s final stretch, scoring 13 points in 24 games. The Friars have a first round matchup with Quinnipiac and could potentially see Vecchione and Union in the East Regional Final.
Moore also played an important offensive role in his freshman season at the University of Denver, scoring 13 goals and 18 assists in 41 games. Denver secured their spot in the tournament by winning the first ever NCHC Frozen Faceoff last weekend. The Pioneers will play Northeast Regional No. 1 seed Boston College in the first round.
A year ago, Moore was the leading scorer for the Storm, accounting for 63 points on 20 goals and 43 assists.
Other Storm alums in the tournament include the University of Vermont’s Mario Puskarich (2009-11), the Hockey East’s Rookie of the Year, Quinnipiac forward Soren Jonzzon (2010-12), and North Dakota defenseman Andrew Panzarella (2009-10).
All NCAA Tournament regional games will take place from March 28-30. The Frozen Four gets underway April 10 in Philadelphia.
The 2014 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey National Championship bracket can be found here.
Tri-City will now hit the road for four games over the next two weekends in Fargo, Sioux City and Des Moines. Catch all the action on The Breeze 94.5 FM beginning with the Viaero Wireless Pre-Game Show from Fargo on Friday night at6:45 p.m.
The Storm’s final game of the 2013-14 season, Fan Appreciation and Anderson Cup Tribute Night, is scheduled for April 5 against Lincoln at 7:05 p.m. at the Viaero Event Center.
CHICAGO (AP) — Northwestern University says it disagrees with the decision from a federal agency that found that the school’s football players qualify as employees, and can create the nation’s first union of college athletes.
The university, based in Evanston, Illinois, says it will appeal to labor authorities in Washington. The school has argued that college athletes, as students, don’t fit into the same category as factory workers, truck drivers and other unionized workers.
A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board, Peter Sung Ohr, found that the players “fall squarely within” the definition of “employee” under federal labor law.
An employee is generally regarded by law as someone who gets compensation for a service and is under the direct control of managers. Players argued that their scholarships are compensation, and that their coaches are their managers.
The College Athletes Players Association, which would take the lead in organizing the players, wants guaranteed coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former players. It also wants better procedures to reduce head injuries. Other goals include potentially letting players pursue commercial sponsorships.
But critics say letting players unionize could raise the prospects of strikes by disgruntled players, or lockouts by athletic departments.
For now, the push is on to unionize athletes at private schools such as Northwestern. The federal agency doesn’t have jurisdiction over public universities.
—Previous Story—
CHICAGO (AP) — In a ruling that could revolutionize college sports, a federal agency has given football players at Northwestern University the green light to unionize.
Wednesday’s landmark ruling by a regional director of National Labor Relations Board means the players are deemed employees under federal law and so can create the nation’s first college athletes’ union.
Union lawyers argued the Big Ten school’s football players are part of a commercial enterprise that generates hefty profits through their labor.
The NCAA, Big Ten Conference and the private school vehemently opposed the union drive. Northwestern argued that college athletes are students and can’t be put in the same category as factory workers.
The ruling in Chicago by director Peter Ohr can be appealed to the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Rosemont, Ill. — The Big Ten Conference on Wednesday recognized a total of 678 winter sports student-athletes who have been named to the Academic All-Conference team. The list of honored student-athletes features 34 men’s and 49 women’s basketball players, 51 men’s and 52 women’s gymnasts, 69 hockey players, 143 men’s and 183 women’s swimmers and divers and 97 wrestlers. To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, student-athletes must be letterwinners who are in at least their second academic year at their institution and carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
At least nine of these student-athletes have maintained unblemished cumulative GPAs:
Nicholas Caldwell, Wisconsin men’s swimming & diving (Jr., Chemistry)
David Zoltowski, Michigan State men’s swimming & diving (Jr., Electrical Engineering)
The conference office also awards Academic All-Big Ten distinction in the fall and spring seasons and will present the Distinguished Scholar Award at the end of the academic year. Student-athletes eligible for the Distinguished Scholar Award must be letterwinners in at least their second year in residence at their institution. Qualifying student-athletes must have earned a GPA of 3.7 or higher for the current academic year, excluding summer school. The Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award was established by conference Faculty Representatives as an addition to the conference’s Academic All-Big Ten program.
Investigators with the Nebraska State Patrol Troop C-Grand Island are asking the public for help in locating two suspects and a pickup truck believed to be connected with the assault of a Davenport man.
Just after 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25, investigators with the Nebraska State Patrol responded to a request for assistance from the Nuckolls County Sheriff’s Office reference an assault which occurred in a home under construction north of Oak, in Nuckolls County.
The victim, identified as Steven Reinke, 62, of Davenport, told investigators he was working alone in the residence one mile north of Oak, when two males entered the home around 12:30 p.m., and assaulted him with a wooden baseball bat. He walked to a neighboring residence after the attack, and let himself in when no one answered the door. He was discovered around 4:00 p.m., on the kitchen floor by the residents when they returned home.
Reinke, who suffered a skull fracture, a broken arm and a broken leg, was transported by ambulance to the Hebron hospital, before being flown by medical helicopter to BryanLGH-West in Lincoln.
Investigators are looking for two suspects, both identified as white males. One suspect is said to be approximately 55-years of age, 5’8’’ tall, 165 lbs. with a sandy blonde or light gray beard and mustache, and short sandy blonde or light gray hair. He was wearing a green camouflage shirt, desert camouflage pants, boots and a brown military style hat. The second suspect is described as a white male, in his 40’s, approximately 5’8’’ tall, 190 lbs. with a stocky build. He was wearing a black ski mask, dark glasses, a red shirt under a black zip-up sweatshirt, black sweat pants and black or gray hiking boots.
The suspects were believed to have left the home in a southerly direction, driving an older boxy 1996 style green Dodge Dakota pickup, with a matching green topper and a possible red pinstripe on both the pickup and the topper.
Anyone with information that could aid in the investigation of this crime is asked to call the Nebraska State Patrol Troop C Headquarters in Grand Island at (308) 385-6000.
Mary Suzanne “Suzi” Noonan, 69, of North Platte, Neb., formerly of Aurora, Ill., died March 25, 2014 at home in North Platte after a courageous year-long battle with cancer. She was born July 13, 1944, in Dallas, Texas, to Dr. Stuart B. Stafford and Christine (Kozeal) Stafford.
Suzi graduated in 1962 from St. Patrick High School in North Platte and, after attending St. Louis University, graduated in 1966 from Creighton University in Omaha. For most of her career, she was a medical technologist at the former St. Joseph Mercy Hospital and at Mercy Center hospital in Aurora. She was most recently a technician for the University of Nebraska Ag Research facility in North Platte and also worked at the Salvation Army’s Girls Home. She served as medical technologist at the Darnall Army Medical Center at Ft. Hood, Texas, during the Vietnam War.
She loved spending time at her family ranch in Nebraska’s Sand Hills country, in Paxton, west of North Platte. As a youth, she and her palomino, “Candy,” won many barrel-racing events at rodeos in western Nebraska and she was named “Sutherland Rodeo Queen.” She was a member of the NCAA varsity basketball cheerleader squads for both the St. Louis U. Billikens and the Creighton U. Bluejays. She was an avid student of all levels of government and was active in the Democratic Party. She was a precinct committeewoman in Aurora and was a member of Adlai E. Stevenson’s U.S. Senate campaign in the 1970s. Suzi was an avid reader, and most enjoyed a good crime novel or mystery, and a Christmas didn’t pass without a homemade knitted gift to one of her children or grandchildren. She was especially proud of her four children and six grandchildren, and enjoyed a loving relationship with her daughters-in-law.
Suzi is survived by her mother; her children, Katie Richards of Cyprus, Christie Hahn of Chicago, Joe (Kim) Noonan of Dallas and Peter (Hilary) Noonan of Denver; her grandchildren, Tara Kaplan, Declan Richards, Connor Hahn, Davis Hahn, Wendy Noonan and Norah Noonan; a sister, Kay; and a brother, Kent. She was preceded in death by her father, and a sister, Janet, in childhood.
Special thanks and gratitude from her children go to Great Plains Hospice for taking such good care of their mother.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Salvation Army of North Platte, 1020 N Adams Ave, North Platte, NE 69101 and online condolences may be shared at www.adamsswanson.com.
Rosary will be held 7:00 P.M. Friday, March 28, 2014 at Adams & Swanson Funeral Home, 421 W 4th St. Mass of Christian Burial will be held 2:00 P.M. Saturday, March 29, 2014 at St. Patrick’s Church, 415 N Chestnut with the Reverend James Golka as celebrant. A luncheon will be held at St. Pat’s Church hall immediately following the ceremony. Burial will be at the Paxton Nebraska Cemetery immediately following the luncheon. Those wishing to sign the register book may do so from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. today and Friday at Adams & Swanson Funeral Home which is in charge of arrangements.
(AP) — A new National Willa Cather Center is being planned for the author’s Nebraska hometown of Red Cloud.
